Realistic fishing lures, devices which look and act like live, swimming, animals, are increasing in popularity among game fisherman. Known as swim bait, these devices emulate the look and the motion of smaller swimming fish and other creatures, attracting larger game fish to the hook and capture.
Conventionally, three main factors are involved in determining the depth and speed at which swim bait can be fished, i.e. where they can be effectively used. The first factor is the rate of fall or sinking speed of the bait, while the second factor is slack time, meaning the time between casting and the commencement of retrieval, and thirdly, the speed of retrieval. Normally, a slow sinking swim bait, given enough line and time, may be fished in a slow manner in the deepest part of any given body of water. A faster sinking swim bait allows the fisherman to reach the same depth sooner and the ability to fish that depth at a faster speed. Both of these baits could also be fished in five feet of water, again the faster sinking would be fished at a faster retrieve.
After acquiring practice in using these baits, the fisherman is able to target depth and speed with pinpoint accuracy that will maintain the lure in a fish strike zone, i.e. the area in which the target fish is likely to strike, longer.
Therefore, a long-standing need has existed to provide a swim bait which, when selected and used by an accomplished fisherman, provides a known, predetermined, rate of fall. Such fishermen understand that a slower retrieve equates to a deeper route, while a faster retrieve yields a shallower route. As such, one who is so skilled can cause the swim bait to follow a path at the desired depth by combining the rate of fall with the rate of retrieve. The rate of fall is not an exact science but provides a baseline from which to start, usually based upon the rate of fall value indicated for the specific swim bait to be employed.
Thus, there is a need for a swim bait lure, potentially composed of soft plastic material, which can be fished at a variety of speeds, ranging from a relatively fast speed to a very slow speed, thereby allowing its usage at virtually any desired depth, given enough time to descend. When retrieved through the water, the preferred swim bait lure includes a means for causing a side-to-side tail movement, making the swim bait lure appear to be swimming. To effectively control the rate of fall, a net buoyancy should be enabled, independent of any supplementary weighting media used, giving a choice of rates of fall, and hence the ability for the swim bait lure to be fished at different depths. A plurality of such swim bait fishing lures may meet this buoyancy requirement, where the lures vary in weight, thereby resulting in a set of lures which will operate at a variety of depths.